SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE
Anil Chotmarada
Architecture, in its true sense and meaning, is the symbolic representation of the development that has taken place in the society that is executing that architecture. Past civilizations are recognized and respected for the architectural marvels that have been executed by those societies and are still present for the contemporary generations to admire. Architecture is the representation of the well being of a society and its becoming noticeable manifests the technological and economic growth of that society. The term development here is indicative of the multi disciplinary growth that makes one society be seen as better that another society. It would be worthwhile to probe the ramifications of the term sustainable development before venturing in the field of sustainable architecture.
There are numerous ways of appreciating the term sustainable development but the basic gist is that any development that meets the present needs of the people without compromising on the capabilities of the future generations of that society to meet their needs could be addressed as sustainable development. Development, of necessity, to be sustainable, has to be multi disciplinary and has to be in all spheres of life. Besides being multi dimensional sustainable development also has to be a continuous process. Stagnation in the process of development will bring down the stature and position of that society as other societies developing faster or more continuously will overtake it in terms of being developed. Therefore, there is no set aim or objective of sustainable development in a societal system but for a society to continue developing to be positioned above other contemporary societies.
Development takes place when the needs of all segments of a society are identified and there is the necessary environment to meet these needs. The environment conducive for development has to have the right mix of economy, technology and societal will for development to take place in a society. A developed society is thus that which not only provides the basic food, clothing, housing, employment, education, health facilities, recreational facilities and the like but also provides the possibility for each individual to raise his or her standard in all aspects of living and also provides the environment to let this happen constantly and continuously.
Sustainable development has to also respect the available resources. Developmental activities use available resources, which are by and large natural or are derived from nature. For the development to be meaningful and sustainable there has to be the due consideration for capacity of the environment to fulfill the needs of the present and the future. Development that uses up all the available resources for its present growth only cannot sustain that developmental path for too long as the resources on which the development was dependent would get depleted in the foreseeable future and the future generations will be deprived of the benefits that would have accrued out of that resource. The amount of resources available at a given technological situation is the limits in which the developmental processes have to be designed for these to be sustainable. Not only the natural finite resources but also the decreasining productivity caused by overexploitation of resources, declining quality of water and environment and shrinking of biodiversity, cause these limitations.
Architecture as a sub system in the developmental procedure presents a unique challenge in the field of sustainability. Construction projects typically consume large amounts of materials and produce tons of waste and continue doing so if not designed with principles of ecology in mind. Sustainable construction may be seen as the generation and subsequent responsible management of an efficient and healthy built environment that is based on appropriate resource utilization and ecological principles. Sustainable designed buildings aim to lessen their impact on the environment through energy and resource efficiency while being practical and useful for the purpose for which these have been designed.
Buildings that can be seen as sustainable are those buildings that have minimum adverse impacts on the built and natural environment in terms of both the buildings and the broader regional and even the global settings. Sustainable building systems are those that strive for balanced integral quality of performance, economic, environmental and societal qualities, Sustainable building practices will therefore be the rational use of natural resources, appropriate management of buildings and contribute to saving scarce resources, reducing energy consumption and improving environmental quality.
Sustainable buildings need to be environmental friendly in the total life cycle of the building. Starting from the construction stage to its normal use and any subsequent future alterations, all stages need to be designed such that there is the least environmental impact. At the design stage, due respect to environmental conditions so that the built environment takes advantage of the climatic situation and the wastes produced are recycled, the selection of materials and their sustainability, and the design of structure that uses least energy consuming material needs to be given. Some principles that need to be given due considerations are less of demolition and more adaptive reuse of buildings, reduction of transportation for all types of construction and tight controls of processes to reduce noise, dust, vibrations, pollution and waste.
Architecture that can be addressed as sustainable needs to also give due consideration to energy efficiency whence there is minimum use of energy in constructing, managing and running buildings besides using benign ecological materials that in no way cause any degrading effect locally or globally. The form of the building needs to be suitable to the site, the climate and environment and accommodation needs to be made for recycling wastes so that there is least amount of external inputs.
Ideally a sustainable building could be seen to harvest its own water and energy needs and operate without producing any pollution. Sustainable buildings should generate no wastes that are not useful for some other purpose of habitat management, more or less work like an ecosystem whence each sub system supports the other sub systems. Such buildings should improve the health and diversity of the local eco-system rather than degrade it. Nature has already provided a model whence all sub systems work in tandem, to the mutual advantage of each other. Man only has to emulate these innovatively and positively.
Sustainable architectural design is an outcome of thoughtful integration of all the components of architecture. It needs to correlate all the philosophical components with the practical aspects of the engineering components of architecture. This suggests that from the very inception to the complete execution of the project there is the need to appreciate the integration of elements of sustainability in the process of architecture. Planning and design needs to be thorough where early decisions will produce better results on energy efficiency, passive solar design, day lighting and natural cooling, that form some of the components of sustainability in architecture.
Sustainable design has to be accepted as a philosophical approach to architecture rather than a prescriptive building style. Sustainable buildings need not have a specific look or a style. Besides the external physical form even the other aspects of architecture like time and cost need not be different from the routine architecture. These buildings, if designed properly, will not cost more than the normal buildings nor are these normally more complicated than normal construction techniques. There is also the fact that each component of a sustainable building is part of the whole and needs to be integrated with each other besides relating to the complete building system.
There are certain principles that can help evolve sustainable architecture. Probably the most important is the appreciation of the quality of the site. The building if of the site rather than on the site would have greater chances of being addressed as sustainable. Then there is the issue of relating with nature. With the least disturbance to the natural surrounds and with the least disturbance to the natural systems can architecture be sustainable. Architecture needs to bring joy to Man and Man is happiest when with nature as a natural being. Architecture needs to provide that joy to Man. Another fact is that sustainable architecture needs to follow the natural processes. Nature produces no waste. The byproduct of one organism becomes the food for another. In other words, natural systems are made for closed loops. All living organisms and processes respect the needs of other species. Thus there is the need to appreciate that using processes that regenerate rather than deplete make the living environment more alive and sustainable. Using natural cycles and processes bring the man made environment back to life.
Human beings are probably the only species on earth that produce waste that is not raw material for use by another species. Man is the only animal on the planet that produces wastes that are toxic and that build up for long periods of time. A sustainable system should eliminate the concept of waste. Waste is not an unwanted product but it is some material that can be used if deployed correctly. Waste and pollution are representations of the lack of efficiency in human systems and result in great human and economic losses as what could become a resource is no longer available for use and has the tendency of causing harm to other humans or other species.
Sustainable architecture can thus be symbolically seen as that which improves the quality of human life while not transgressing the carrying capacity of the supporting eco-systems and that which uses natural renewable or recyclable resources without degrading these or otherwise diminish their renewable usefulness for future generations while maintaining effective stocks of natural resources.
Anil Chotmarada is a Faculty & Director in Gateway College of Architecture & Design, Sonipat-131001, India.